Heating and ventilating fireplace system



Nov. 2, 1943.. w. A. L. BEYER HEATING AND VENTILATING FIREPLACE SYSTEM Filed April 28, 1941; 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR I W./4. L BEYER ATTORNEY Nov. 2, 1943.

W. A. L. BEYER HEATING AND VENTILATING FIREPLACE SYSTEM Filed April 28, 1941 2 Sheets-she t 2 ATTORN EY Patented Nov. 2, 1943 HEATING AND vENTILA'rmGmEPLAoE SYSTEM I a 7 William A. L. Beyer, Normal, nr 1 1 g Application April28, 1941, Serial N0. 390,835 1 clai (01. 1269-121) My present invention is an improvement in a heating system whereby the fuel in a fireplace is more efliciently utilized, the ,stale, air in the room bein continually renewed by the introduc tion of fresh, outside warmed air, the tempera ture equalized in'all parts of the room, and the temperature equalized from times of brisk fire to the'period when theiire dies 'down. It is a well known fact that, with a good fire burning in a fireplace, the heat radiated from .the fireplace is so strong'that it is not comfortableto stand'or sit near the fireplace fbecausethat part of the body subjected to the directly radiated heat is uncomfortably jwa'rm While the opposite side of the body may still be'chilly. However, the reason for this does not appear to have been well un: derstood; Although there may be several factors contributingto thislco'ndition, the major factor and the o' ne I desire to emphasize is the fact that, as the fire draws air out of theroom to support combustion, the outside air pressure forces cold air into, the ,room at any available opening, or, to state it another, way, as a chimney draft tends to create a partial vacuum in the room, cold out sicle air is beingdrawn'in around doors and win-,

dows. In all other fireplaces, a much cold air must come into a room which is provided with a fireplace as is used in the combustion chamber and discharged up the "chimney. This'cold air moving towardjthe fir'e' "and out through the chimney is the cause of the'unfortunate chilly feeling at 'ones back in front of a fireplace. V If a sufiicient amount of air to support com bustionis given an easy, relatively frictionless access to the-room the airwil'l use this channel and thus" preventf 'the entrance of air through morerestricted openings around doors and win dows, and, ifthis air is heated on its waythrough the channel and is then introduced into the room at th proper placeflthe entranceof raw, cold air will be forestalledand thus the bane of fireplace heating, "namely, alternate roasting and chilling near the the. will beobviated.

My'invention provides for an automatic, steady flow of fresh, outside, heatconditioned air across the entire room, then into. and" out through the fireplace. This antomatic'action is brought about by the free flowofhutside air through a duct. provided therefor into the partialvacuum created by the draft in the chimney. My invention further'provides 'meansfor' equalizing the temperature and comfort 'ccnditions'for all parts of the room from times of brisk fire to times of low fire conditions; In" allother fireplaces, it is impossible ,to close the chimney flue damper until thefir is completely out. Earlier closing results in the room being filled with fumes or smoke. This results in rapid chilling of the room, for, as long as the chimney draft is open, it continues to draw cold air into the room. In my fireplace, this is obviatedfas all air which entersithe room'coi'n'es through the heated ,duct,"and thus the room r'eceives as much heated air as l is dissipated by the air flowingout through the chimney. In my fireplace, with afbig, brisk fire, the draft of the chimney is strong. I'h'e heating chamber warms the inflowing air quickly and it flotvs'ihtofthe room rapidly -to replace the air drawn out by the strong chimney dr'aft. f As'the firedies down, the draft-or th'efchlmney lessens, the warm air is drawn in more slowly, and'even so, the continued entrance of such airjforestalls entrance of "outside, coldfa'irl 7 Among the objects, therefore, of this'mventicn are the following: j" Tosupply afcontinuous newer conditio'hed,

fresh, outside air; sufficient to supply the" entire:

To equalize, as nearl'yas possible, the tmperature and room; H

To conservefuehj j comfo'rt 1 conditions in all parts of the To check the jin'flotv of cold? airth-roughfum To eliminatesrhokin'g up of a room caused by lowchimnc'ys eradver'se 'Wind condltions;

To provide go d draft conditions for a fireplace fire;and

Such fllrthe robjec'ti advantages, and camber-1 ties as will hereafter appear andasare inherent in the construction disclosed "herein.

Myinvention ,ifurt'he'rresides in the coiribi-iia tion, construction, and arrangement of parts illustrated in theaccompanying drawings and,

,Fig. ,1 represents a front elevation of a fireplace, partlybrokenjaway to show internal con- Fig. 2 representsa vertical section substantially along the plane indicated by the line 2+2, Fig. 1 Fig. 3 represents a vertical section substantially along the" planeindi'ca'ted by thelinei-t,

Fig.1; Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7 represent transverse sections substantially. along thejplanes indicated by the lines 4-4, 5- 5, 6 B, and 'l'e l', respectivelyfin Reference will now be made in greater detail to-the annexed drawings for a more complete dis- ""c'tionless openin largementat the inner end of the duct 3. In the present drawings, the grate is not shown, since p it is conventional.

tering at 3 from an outside source, preferably from outside the house. I consider it desirable to have a box in the foundation 'wall of the house and to have a grating over the outside of this box to prevent, as far as possible, entrance of foreign objects. This is not regarded as involving invention and is therefore not disclosed. The air flowing through the admissionpipe 3 flows upwardly through the floor and'is admitted at 4 into the chamber I behind the firebox 2 The air flowing upwardly around-the sides of the firebox, in contact with the walls'thereo f, and the walls of the flue 5,'leading from .thefirebox 2 to the chimney, is heated in the course of its travel.

As is clear from Fig. 3, the flue gases pass into and upwardly through the chimney opening 6 .to escape into the air. The air entering at 3 flows upwardly, then laterally and downwardly through the openings 8, shown most clearly in Figs. 5 and 8. This heated air passes downwardly from the openingsl upon opposite sides .of the heat-absorbing body 9, preferably made of-cast metal The two openings throughwhich the heated air passes are indicated in Fig.8 at H]. -These two channels combine at the lower end of the body 9, as shown at H, to form a single air channel l2 from which lead the two air-distributing conduits 13, as shown most clearly on sheet I of the It is of course possible toguse one or drawings. more of these-air-ducts I3, and I therefore do not wish to-be limited to any particular number or size. The one essential thing is that this duct or these ducts shall be as large and straight as convenient in order to reduce to. a minimum the amount of friction: which the. air encounters.

These air-ducts may lead to any part of the room but they preferably carry the air to a fioor register in a remote partwhere the temperature is likely to be the lowestin the roorng It is important that the air-carrying conduitsshall "be large to reduce toaminimum the skin friction.

- In reality, the fireplace opening I constitutes. an

enlargement of the duct comprising the parts-3, I, 8, l3, and it is in this enlargementthat the heating of the air takes place. j The walls of the firebox 2 are inclined in order togive better heat-exchange contact between the fire and the metal so as to producea greater amount of heat transfer from thefi'rebox'tothe .air surrounding the same. Also',-as is most apparent from Figs. 2 and 3, this results in an increase;

in the cross-section of the space surrounding the taken] This provides forthe expansion of the air as it is heated and rises toward'the top of the heating chamber. It also decreases the skin friction between the air and the surface of the fire box.. Friction is also reduced by eliminating, as far as possible, sharpturns inthe channels which the'air must travel.

In F g 9 he e i hown a stru ure in w ch As is clear from the drawings, the walls of the firebox are sloping to insure V the least possible resistance to the flow of air en firebox, the farther from the floor asection'is a thimble 5a and a sleeve 51) replace the flue 5 of the structure described above. The thimble 511 may be either integral with the wall of the firebox 2 or may be made separately therefrom and secured thereto. Preferably the sleeve 51) is cast integral With the metal block 9, and the opening therein is made of a size and shape to closely re- "ceive the thimble 511 so as to reduce to a mini- ;mum the leakage of air or smoke between the parts 5a and 5b. Making the sleeve integral with the cast metal block and of greater thickness than the flue 5, described above, will tend to increase the latent heating capacity of the metal block after the fire goes out, thus prolonging the period of time when heated fresh air will be circulated through the fireplace and delivered to the room.

As will be readily recognized, the ordinary fireplace radiates heat only from thefront, a large part of the heat generated by the fire being wastedin the gaseous products of combustion which go upthe chimney without being utilized in any way. On the contrary, in this construction, a large percentage of the liberated heat, other than that which is radiated to the room, is absorbed by the metal and brick heat-storage material, and then this latent heat is transmitted to the air moving through the air channels to be delivered to the room. This air, coming into and moving through the heating chamber and conduits, keeps the cold air from coming in around doors and windows and, in this way,'also, tends to increase the efficiency' of the apparatus. This construction has several heat-radiating surfaces and this, too, tends to increase efficiency.

Since dampers for controlling the flow of heated air and products of combustion are conventional, I have omitted a showing of any such in the present drawings. Inasmuch as sizes and proportions, as well as the number and size of heat-distributing pipes may vary considerably, it will be understood that I do not expect to be limited to the'specific details shown, and, also, it is of course understood that the specific description of structure set forth above may be departed from without departing from the spirit of my invention as set forth in this specification and the appended claim.

Having now described my invention, I claim:

In a' space heating and ventilating system, a duct leading from an external source of fresh air to the space to be heated, said duct having an enlargement open at one side for the reception of a fire-box, a fire-box set into said enlargement and having its top, back, and lateral walls spaced from the walls of the duct sufiicientlyto permit free circulation of air through the duct, around the fire-box, the opening of the entrance part of the duct into the enlargement being located at thebottom of the enlargement and the exit from said enlargement being at the top part thereof, and the walls of the fire-box being sloped to increase from the bottom upwardly the cross-sectional area of the space between the fire-box and the duct walls, the part of the duct leading from said enlargement terminating in an exit into the space to be heated at a point in said space remote from said fire-box and at a level substantially that of the floor of the space being heated.

W. A. L; BEYER. 

